Former England skipper Michael Vaughan and legendary Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath slammed a certain section of English crowd at Edgbaston for crossing the line while booing Steve Smith in the Ashes 2019 Test on Thursday, 1st August here.
With the Australian trio of Cameron Bancroft, David Warner and Smith playing their first Test match since the infamous ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town, English crowd welcomed them with non-stop chants of – ‘Aussie cheats’ on Day 1 of the first Ashes Test in Birmingham.
However, the hostile reception for the trio was predictable, but Smith received a tough reception from the harsh English crowd despite finishing the day with an all-time great Ashes innings at Edgbaston.
While the majority applauded and cheered Smith for his mind-blowing Test innings that pulled Australia out of trouble, a section of crowd taunted the former skipper when he reached three figures and even again got booed by them when he walked off the ground after being dismissed for 144 here.
Though, Vaughan and McGrath were aware of such welcome of the trio in England, but the way English crowd continued to boo Smith despite his masterclass here disappointed the two.
Speaking on the BBC, Vaughan said: “When he strolls out at number four, I get the boos. But when someone like that gets a fifty and a hundred and then gets booed off the pitch, come on. We’ve got to be better than that. Sometimes you’ve just got to accept that greatness is in front of you. Today, I thought we saw one of the great, great Test innings.”
While McGrath said: “You’d expect that at the start. It was always going to be built up and quite hostile and they were going to give (them) a hard time. We saw it in the World Cup.”
The Aussie great continued, “But it’s 16 months ago. People make mistakes, they paid the penalty and they’ve moved on. To see people boo him when he got a hundred, an exceptional inning is a little bit disappointing. But that’s the way it goes.”
The crowd carried ‘sandpaper’ along with them to the stadium and face-masks to disturb the Australians, however, the stylish right-hander insisted that he was unaffected by the English noise throughout his innings at the post-match press conference.
Smith stated, “I know I've got the support of the boys in the room and, for me, that's all that matters. The Aussie supporters that were here, they were very loud today when I got to a hundred. It's great to have some Aussie support over here.”
(With BBC Inputs)
